As parents, we all worry about our children the moment they are out of our sight. As Elizabeth Stone so eloquently wrote: “Making the decision to have a child - it is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. ”

Passions are running high on both sides about the Saturday acquittal of neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in the case of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed Florida 17-year-old whom Zimmerman shot and killed as Trayvon was on his way back to the apartment where he was staying with his father in February 2012.

Those who expected or wanted a different outcome blame the jury. But the jury made a reasonable decision based on the laws we have, two Dallas experts in the law told me this morning. So if legally, George Zimmerman is innocent of Trayvon Martin's death, then who is guilty? Could our laws be to blame?

Florida has had a stand your "stand your ground" law since 2005 that gives people the right to use lethal force on an attacker if they believe they are acting in self defense. Texas expanded its "castle doctrine," which allows you to use lethal force when defending your home, with elements of the "stand the ground law" in 2009, Douglas Uloth, a Dallas lawyer with a special interest in constitutional law, explains.

These laws remove a person's duty to retreat to safety and says a person can attack if they have a reasonable fear of harm or death. These laws, coupled with easy access to legal guns, can prove a lethal combination, says Meghan Ryan, a professor at the SMU Dedman School of Law.

In fact, since the castle doctrine and stand your ground laws have been enacted in Florida and 16 other states, "justifiable" homicides, as they are called, have nearly doubled from 2000 to 2010. Plus, not only have these laws resulted in an increase in homicides, they have failed to deter crime, according to a Texas A&M study by Professor Mark Hoekstra and Cheng Cheng, who write that there are an additional 500 to 700 homicides per year nationally in states with these laws.

Which brings us back to the question of what can parents do to protect their kids? One thing people can do is to take a closer look at these laws, all of which are new to the 21st century, Ryan says.

"The jury did what they are supposed to do," Ryan says. "If people don't like these laws, they should work towards changing them."

While they are in effect, however, it's important for parents and children to understand how the laws work and what rights we do and don't have as children walk in our neighborhoods.

With these laws, our children are not innocent until proven guilty. Instead, if they threaten or even inadvertently make someone feel threatened (even by surprising them suddenly), they are at risk and they should know that anyone that feels threatened by them may have a gun. It has never been more important to be street savvy, to stay off other people's lawns, to avoid walking alone in an unfamiliar neighborhood, to retreat whenever possible rather than confront someone and to call 911 the moment you feel as if you're in danger.

To which I would add, if you are new to a neighborhood, take the opportunity to introduce yourself and to make yourself known, particularly to the neighborhood watch so that they know you belong. Find out before you settle in if people there are jumpy for any reason, perhaps because of burglaries or other crimes.

These are steps you may not have needed to take a decade ago, before these laws were passed and guns became so readily available. But times and laws have changed, says Uloth.

"Personally I think it's unfortunate that neighbors regard each other as the enemy rather than as people they might befriend," he says.

"People have trained children in situational awareness regarding not getting into a stranger's car, being careful if someone approaches you, but now we need to expand that to be aware of where you are and what impression you may give to others. You may have been doing something as simple as playing baseball in the park, but if you're walking home, carrying a bat, that may seem like a weapon to other people."